New Macaw Regurging Need Help

[Rhurst]

Hi Everyone..I recently (1 month ago) purchased a 6 year old Catalina Macaw. He was owned by a man that recently passed away. The mans wife had the bird in a cage with 2 perches made out of PVC pipe with NO toys. She said she could not afford to take care of him. Long story short I brought him home. Set his cage up, placed lots and lots of toys in his cage. He will not let me hold him. He will only let me briefly touch his head threw the cage bars. When I am gone his cage door is closed otherwise its open for him to come and go as he pleases. He comes out and plays all over the cage inside and outside, but never leaves it. If i approach he backs away where i can not reach him. He is eating a well balanced diet now with lots of cooked food along with a special feed i buy at the bird show. He does not scream all the time. He only screams when I come home from work for about 20 minutes. The rest of the time he is playing happily with his toys in his cage.
Here is the problem that I am having. He is regurgitating on EVERY TOY in his cage. He is not throwing up. He is regurgitating and occasionally eating it back. This is non stop 24/7. What is wrong, what can i do to stop this behavior, what have I done wrong, etc... please any help or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Oh gosh, thank you for taking this bird in, sounds like he was in atrocious conditions before you took him home.

It also sounds like he's got a bit of cage aggression/territorial behavior going on. Do you have any play stand AWAY from the cage he could play on? Once you get him away from his cage, it will be so much easier to work with him.

You could try and use a dowel to have him step up for you, or any other perches you have handy.

I believe teaching the "up" and "down" command is crucial for any bird owner, and a good starting point in training.

Has he been to the vet? If he's lived in bad conditions for the first 6 years of his life, I personally would have him checked out thoroughly. It would also give you piece of mind that he is not harboring any communicable diseases.

You said he regurgitates on every single toy? He may be overly stimulated. OR, perhaps he's being a bit hormonal at the moment? Even though I'm not sure that they are sexually mature at 6. Maybe the beginning of it.

 

[Rhurst]

The vet was booked solid. But we do have a check up scheduled for later this week. I do not have a play stand, but i am currently working on one. I'm hoping once I get the play stand I can start to work with him a little more one on one without his cage being a issue. I am just really at a loss about the regurgitating. Someone suggested i take his toys away. But I disagree because he came from a home with no toys. I refuse to put him back in the same situation. I will continue to work with him, hopefully when he realizes his toys are not going anywhere he will slow down with the regurgitating.

 

[Phlox]

I wonder if he's just so happy to have nice toys and perches that he's "in love" with them? I think it might just be an excess of bird happiness and he just doesn't know what to do.

Also, you can make an inexpensive play gym with a big pot and some branches. I just put the primary branches in the pot and put some stones or bricks in there to stabilize and fill the rest with gravel. I use big river rock type landscape stones so the bird can't eat it. It's a place to start if you aren't sure what he'll want more permanently yet. I hang toys and stuff on there and try to have a nice vertical section. You can get a y-shaped branch and tie or screw a horizontal perch on. It won't last for a long time with a macaw unless you use manzanita or something but its a place to start.

 

[Birdman666]

I wonder if he's just so happy to have nice toys and perches that he's "in love" with them? I think it might just be an excess of bird happiness and he just doesn't know what to do.

I tend to agree with this assessment. It's not uncommon for a macaw to feed a favorite toy. My guess is this will calm down when he gets used to having them around.

Hormones generally kick in at around 7-ish... so there might be a little bit of puberty that we don't know how to handle yet, too, going on.